Fuyu Persimmon Sauce Recipe

As I puzzled over new ways to use our abundant crop of persimmons this year, an idea came to me in a flash: These are the crisp variety of persimmons, that one eats like apples. I'll make persimmon sauce!

Since I had never made apple sauce before, (let alone even heard of persimmon sauce,) I consulted the brilliant and comprehensive book, Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making by James Peterson. This book was an award winner and for good reason. I remembered that there was a section on fruit sauces, and I based my recipe on his guidance.

The sauce was delicious, and I felt that I had really discovered something. The persimmon sauce tastes light and refreshing, and can be frozen for future use. Serve chilled with an extra sprinkle of cinnamon to taste.

PERSIMMON SAUCE

Ingredients:
Fuyu persimmons (about four or five medium to large size)
1 or 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
ground cinnamon (2 teaspoons or to taste)
ground nutmeg (just a dash--optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Clean, peel and core two cups of chopped Fuyu persimmons (about five good sized persimmons).

Cover the chopped persimmons with water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer until fruit is soft and easily pierced with a fork. This could take 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove the fruit from the heat. Drain the fruit, but reserve the cooking liquid for future use.

After the cooked fruit has cooled, place it into a food processor and pulse it until it is desired smooth consistency. Add cooking liquid, a few tablespoons at a time, to make a smooth sauce. I used at least a quarter cup of the liquid.

Place the sauce into a mixing bowl. Add a few tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (to taste), and a generous sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg (optional).

Chill the sauce and enjoy!

Comments

[Cindy]

I was looking for a persimmon-sauce recipe when I stumbled over your blog. Thank you for this post (and so many of the other posts I've since read)!

I have a suggestion that you might like: I hated the thought of getting rid of the cooking water, so instead of draining it I used a stick blender on the softened persimmons & water. That left me with a thin sauce, so I then simmered it a bit longer to thicken it. The simmering seemed to concentrate the flavors. Yum!

I wonder, if you thickened it further could you make a "persimmon pie" with it, in the way you would make a pumpkin pie from cooked and mashed fresh pumpkin?

[Suz]

EXACTLY what I was looking for - almost two years after your original post!